HETs

Can someone please explain the way hets are used for breeding you have a 100% a 66% and a 50% ok if i have a 66% male het albino and breed him to a normal female i have a 66% chance to get what 1 albino ball???? :shock: :?: :?:

Check this post for some help on that topic: http://www.ball-pythons.net/index.ph...ight=het#18026

100% het means it is definitely heterozygous for the trait, in this case albinism, which means either one parent was albino and one was normal or het OR it's been bred to another snake and one or more albino hatchlings resulted.

66% het means that both parents were 100% het and this one is normal-looking rather than albino, so you have a 66% chance of its carrying a gene for albinism.

You stated that Albino x albino = albino,
I thought if you breed albino to ablino they don't hatch.

I don't have any idea where you got that from, but you can definitely breed albinos together. Every now and again, snakes, like humans, will be infertile or just lay duds, but I don't know of any morph that is specifically associated with being infertile.

Blink may be thinking of a small number of clutches from regular albino X lavender albino which I understand have yet to produce a good egg. The sample size is so small that we can't be sure this isn't just bad luck. It might turn out that these two different looking morphs are some how incompatible but it's just too early to say. Regular albino x regular albino is done all the time but lavender albino is still quite rare.

Back to the original question. Since albino is recessive a baby must get the albino gene from both parents in order to be albino. So the 66% chance het albino male has to hit his chance and turn out to be a het AND the female also has to be a het albino. Maybe she is a possible het (I had a 66% chance het male X 50% chance het female produce albino babies proving both hets) or maybe she is just a random unknown het (it's happened a few times) but the only way to produce albinos is if both parents are at least het if not outright homozygous albinos.

Even if you breed two that both turn out to be hets you still need some luck as from a het X het breeding each baby still only has a 25% chance of getting the albino gene from both parents. The more eggs you have from het X het the better chance that at least one will be albino.

So if you take two Albinos and breed them, all the babies will come out albino?

Yes, assuming that they're both the same type of albino.

So why don't breeders just take two albinos and make them have babies?!
Everytime I see a "breeding project" theres an albino male and a female het ... I haven't seen one breeder use two albinos yet.

Because you can buy possible het albinos for about $75-$200, definite het for $750-$900, or albinos for $2000+. It's all about the finances. Plus, males can impregnate multiple females per season, so 1 albino male + 6 possible het females = up to 36 or so albinos or hets for an investment of $3000 or so, versus $3600+ for a pair from a breeder resulting in 4-8 albino babies if breeding and incubation go well.

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Originally Posted by Marla

Because you can buy possible het albinos for about $75-$200, definite het for $750-$900, or albinos for $2000+. It's all about the finances. Plus, males can impregnate multiple females per season, so 1 albino male + 6 possible het females = up to 36 or so albinos or hets for an investment of $3000 or so, versus $3600+ for a pair from a breeder resulting in 4-8 albino babies if breeding and incubation go well.

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:shock: Thanks for clearing it up for me! 8)

You're welcome. :) Understanding the math behind it can make a big difference.

Ok answer this ..

When u breed 2 hets together, how can u tell the difference between the normal hatchlings and the het hatclings ?

that's where the term "possible het" comes in. you can't tell for sure if they have the gene for albinism or not unless you breed them and get albino babies.

hmmm .. so lets say, i purchase 2 albino hets (male and female). I breed em and i get 4 hatclings. These four turns out to be 4 'normal' looking bps. I wont be able to tell the difference until i breed every single one of them ?

No wonder people been saying its soo time comsuming to breed ..

If your original two are definite (or 100%) hets, then the resulting offspring are 66% possible hets. Each one must be bred to determine if it's definitely a het, and the fastest way to determine that is to breed it to a snake that's homozygous for the same trait (in other words, is a visible albino, if albinism is the trait in question). In that case, your odds of producing albino offspring would be 50% if the possible het is actually het, and would typically result in albino offspring in the first clutch, though not necessarily. Two of my bp's are possible het albinos, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to prove them out.

I can see now that breeding can be fun and tiresome at the same time. The reason why i asked is because obviously the cheapest way to go for morphs is to breed hets.

hmmm ... marla, do u think some breeders are selling normals when they claim they're hets ? Because like you said, theres no knowing until u breed em. And most of the hets on sale are not 'proven'.

That's why being able to trust your breeder is essential, which is why it's a lot easier for "big name" breeders like NERD or Bob Clark or Ralph Davis (among others) to sell possible hets, because people trust that they won't risk their reputations over such small-time stuff. On the other hand, sometimes you can pick up a poss het cheaper than usual because the breeder got some snakes mixed up and can't tell his 50%s from his 66%s or because it's one he got from someone else and has lost the paperwork. It can go both ways.

Maybe ill just get lucky someday :)

Always a possibility. :)

Another reason you see so many breedings involving hets and possible hets is because those are the people just starting to produce morphs (like I hope to be some day, on a budgeet) and are the ones excited enough about it to post. A big breeder who has been breeding albino X albino for years might not bother to post about a new clutch.

There is one more reason that I know of. I just recently became aware of a trend for kinking in caramels. Apparently even a large number of the original imports where kinked which would tend to point toward it being something intrinsic to being homozygous caramel. Maybe whatever enzyme problem that makes them look like that also makes them kink. However, breeders have been valiantly trying everything under the sun to eliminate this problem including outbreeding. I've heard that a large breeder has given up on caramel X caramel crosses and is doing more crosses involving hets. I haven't heard any hard data to show if this is helping or not. They are also trying drier incubation as a possible countermeasure.

Could there be other morphs with problems prompting preferences for het over homozygous breedings? With the big money involved people can be pretty quite about such things. I had noticed not seeing pics of female pieds on eggs but then I found that the first captive bred pieds where from pied x pied so at least I know it’s possible but I still wonder if female pieds are growing slower than average.